Today I want to address an issue that has gone under the radar for a long time. I want to address the 'elephant in the room' so to speak. This is something that I have observed for a long time now and I have been able to see the changes over time - both good and bad.
Pollution washing up on our beaches is on the rise. Despite the slowly growing awareness around plastic pollution and its impact on our ecosystems, the amount of plastic washing up on once pristine beaches is truly disgusting. It makes me extremely sad when people say that the beaches are clean and beautiful because this only stimulates the trend to avoid the truth. The truth is that our beaches are suffocating under our own careless habits and inability to refuse plastic packaging.
Over the past few months, I have been penguin wardening in the Sydney Harbour National Park, ensuring the penguins are safe and picking up rubbish from the beaches. Two weeks ago, it was the worst I have EVER seen the beach.
Pollution washing up on our beaches is on the rise. Despite the slowly growing awareness around plastic pollution and its impact on our ecosystems, the amount of plastic washing up on once pristine beaches is truly disgusting. It makes me extremely sad when people say that the beaches are clean and beautiful because this only stimulates the trend to avoid the truth. The truth is that our beaches are suffocating under our own careless habits and inability to refuse plastic packaging.
Over the past few months, I have been penguin wardening in the Sydney Harbour National Park, ensuring the penguins are safe and picking up rubbish from the beaches. Two weeks ago, it was the worst I have EVER seen the beach.
In just 20 mins, a fellow volunteer and I picked a quarter of a garbage bag worth of rubbish and had the sun not set on us, we could have continued for a long while. It was absolutely disgusting!
We realised that the reason the beach was so bad was because it was low tide after a very high one and we had had a few days of strong winds blowing the rubbish into the beach. It was such an awful to arrive at a beach which you visit on a regular basis and see it so completely trashed. Even more heart-breaking, the penguins nest and raise chicks on this beach! In the weeks leading up to this particular week, the beach had seemed relatively clean and we thought that the public efforts to reduce plastic waste were working. We have now been reminded how the ocean can hide a the real problem so effectively.
I was in two minds about this evening of cleaning up the beach; on one hand I was so glad we managed to get a low tide after the wind and were able to pick up so much rubbish that would otherwise be floating in the ocean, however I was also appalled at how much rubbish was on the beach and felt disappointed that two people who were making real efforts to reduce their own plastic waste had to clean up after others.
It is really hard to protect marine life once this amount of plastic has made it's way into the waterways. They often mistake it for food and ingest harmful toxins which lead to starvation and death. The ocean is so full of plastic that by 2050, scientists predict that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean! This is absolutely outrageous and I find it hard to understand why more people aren't alarmed by this statistic. To me it seems totally possible after finding so much rubbish on the beach last week. To know that we most likely saved a number of marine creatures by removing all this plastic is really wonderful. It is a great feeling and gives you a real appreciation for how precious and delicate our marine environment is.
We realised that the reason the beach was so bad was because it was low tide after a very high one and we had had a few days of strong winds blowing the rubbish into the beach. It was such an awful to arrive at a beach which you visit on a regular basis and see it so completely trashed. Even more heart-breaking, the penguins nest and raise chicks on this beach! In the weeks leading up to this particular week, the beach had seemed relatively clean and we thought that the public efforts to reduce plastic waste were working. We have now been reminded how the ocean can hide a the real problem so effectively.
I was in two minds about this evening of cleaning up the beach; on one hand I was so glad we managed to get a low tide after the wind and were able to pick up so much rubbish that would otherwise be floating in the ocean, however I was also appalled at how much rubbish was on the beach and felt disappointed that two people who were making real efforts to reduce their own plastic waste had to clean up after others.
It is really hard to protect marine life once this amount of plastic has made it's way into the waterways. They often mistake it for food and ingest harmful toxins which lead to starvation and death. The ocean is so full of plastic that by 2050, scientists predict that there will be more plastic than fish in the ocean! This is absolutely outrageous and I find it hard to understand why more people aren't alarmed by this statistic. To me it seems totally possible after finding so much rubbish on the beach last week. To know that we most likely saved a number of marine creatures by removing all this plastic is really wonderful. It is a great feeling and gives you a real appreciation for how precious and delicate our marine environment is.
The oceans are filling up faster than we can clean them!
But at the same time, I cannot accept that this is the only way forward. It is so unfair that the people who really care about the environment and are making a huge effort to reduce waste in their own lives should be the ones picking up rubbish after other people. We cannot continue to clean the beaches for ever and eventually rid the ocean of rubbish entirely while more and more plastic is being dumped in the ocean every day. The oceans are filling up faster than we can clean them! There really is only one way forward and that is to stop using single-use plastics and find a way to stop contaminating the oceans.
While I would really like to see more people trying to refuse single-use plastics, I also know that everyone has their own priorities and this is not always an option for everyone. We need to allow people to fight for what they believe in and after all, there are many issues in the world other than plastic pollution and environmental conservation. These are simply issues which I feel passionate about and am fighting for. I believe however that everyone can do something to support the preservation of the environment. We have one planet and we cannot fight for anything if we don't help protect the earth.
"Because what every you're fighting for, racism or poverty, feminism, gay rights or any type of equality, it won't matter in the least. Because if we don't all work together to save the environment, we will be equally extinct."
- Prince Ea
One of my favourite videos advocating for environmentally conservation is "Dear Future Generations: Sorry" by Prince Ea. It is an amazing video and I highly recommend you check it out.
I'm not trying to convert people or force them to change their their own habits, I jut want people to wake up and understand how their actions impact mother nature. I want people to stand up for the environment and shift the social norm away from denial and towards change. We have the benefit of knowing exactly where we are going to end up so why don't we take this opportunity to chart a new course for humanity. One of survival and co-existence with nature.